DO WE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

     The last few weeks and months, there’s been a lot of introspection going on in the Ohio sports world. In the face of high hopes, many Ohio sports pundits have been calling for the heads of teams to be fired or drastic changes to be made.

     In November 2024, for example, after THE Ohio State football team lost for the fourth straight time to “the team up north”, there were many doubters that OSU had the discipline and toughness, both physically and mentally, to beat “the team up north”, and to win a championship. They laid the defeat at the feet of Head Coach Ryan Day. Many thought he had to go!

  Secondly, my Cleveland Cavaliers had an almost unprecedented historic winning season, highlighted by two fifteen-game winning streaks. But on Tuesday night, they lost in the playoffs embarrassingly, for the third straight year. They, too, had their physicality and mental toughness called into question.

      Lastly, the Cleveland Guardians have Jose Ramirez, one of the best players in baseball. But year after year, they come up short in the Major League Baseball playoffs. Is the window for winning the MLB championship with Ramirez leading them closing sooner rather than later? Do the Cleveland Guardians have what it takes?

     Last night, I watched an interview with OSU stars Will Howard and Jack Sawyer, in which they said that after the loss to “the team up north”, they had a team meeting with a no-holds-barred soul-searching question-and-answer session about whether they had what it took to win the big games. In their case, the loss to “the team up north”, motivated them to dig deeper than ever before, and to make a conscious decision to become the toughest, both physically and mentally, team in the playoffs to press forward to win the National Championship.

    I was disappointed, however, when both Howard and Sawyer used what the Bible calls in Ephesians 5:4, “Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking”. So, in other words, it’s likely that many Buckeyes and sports stars in general don’t ask God to help them improve their toughness, which I think is sad.

     That being said, do we as Christians have what it takes to win souls? Do we ask God to help us by His Holy Spirit, and perhaps hold team meetings with heated soul-searching discussions? Can we, with God’s help, do what it takes to become a more disciplined and tougher team, if you will—to press forward to win souls for Jesus?